Friday Fun With Acetate!

Oh my gosh - I am so excited to show you what I created for you all today!  I was surfing the web this morning and posted my Facebook status as being soooooo happy to have received a TON of happy mail yesterday - a yummy Verve order, a TCP order and some goodies I had ordered from Scrappin' Great Deals. (I know - awesome, right?)  So, my friend, Miss Jenny Peterson chimed in and suggested that I put some of those supplies to good use and participate in this week's TCP Tuesday Challenge #182 to use acetate in a project.  You know - acetate?  That clear, plastic, transparency stuff?  It just so happened that I had a whole box of them in my filing cabinet so I was in luck.

Initially, I wasn't sure what to do with it... Use it for die cuts?  As the base of a card?  I popped over to Splitcoast for some inspiration and came across this tutorial to make your own note card holder and  I had one of my "light bulb moments."  OK - so today is my anniversary... 16 years of wedded bliss.  We have had our ups and downs like any couple, but for the most part, the years have flown by and have been filled with much joy and happiness.  SO, I thought I would make some "tickets" using my NEW TCP stamp set, "Admit One, " and my new TCP Cut-Ups dies (Big Ticket, Circus Panels, and Circus Border) and then make one of the little boxes to hold the tickets.  Fun, right?  I LOVE the colors for this week's CR84FN Color Challenge and HAD to use them for this project:

I started by making the little box using some acetate for the sides ... please excuse the holes in the acetate.  I originally had a handle on the box but didn't like how it looked so I took it off!  LOL

Then I got busy making four tickets to put in it.  I think I will make some more but I figured that was a good number to start with.  I LOVE how versatile this "Admit One" set is... I was even able to stamp our wedding date on the tickets!

After I used the Big Ticket die to cut the tickets out of white cardstock, I mounted them on some DSP from Pink Paislee and My Mind's Eye and then mounted the whole thing on acetate.  When I decide what sort of "treats" the tickets will be good for, I will just write them in.  Don't you LOVE it?  I am SOOOOO happy with how it turned out and SOOOOOO easy.  You could make just the tickets and give them to your kids as "rewards" - good for one meal of your choice, good for one day of dishes done by mom.... you get the idea!

I had so much fun this morning - THANKS Jenny!!  And thanks for the challenge, TCP - it *was* a challenge for me but a really great one.  Enjoy your weekend, everyone.  See you next week!

{Day Three} of There She Goes Peeks!

*Please scroll down for my 4 Crafty Chicks post - Thanks!*

Kids love to countdown the days until Christmas is finally here and with this new set illustrated by Torico, you are going to have just as much fun creating a countdown advent calendar! With 25 different adorable holiday images and two sets of numbers the possibilities are endless! To make this set even more useable, there are two decorative circles and two decorative squares that were designed to be used with a 1 3/8” punch!!

No Peeking! is a 6x8 set that includes a total of 53 stamps and will sell for $24.

I was able to use three of the images inside of the fantabulous stitched frame for my card.  No sketch, no color challenge - this one's all me.  The sentiment is from last month's release set "BOL Holiday Additions"

Paper: Season's Greetings DSP (Echo Park), Old Olive, Riding Hood Red, Always Artichoke, Very Vanilla  Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black  Accessories: 1-3/8" Square punch, Very Vanilla satin ribbon, World's Greatest die (TSG), button, twine, Nesties Squares, paper piercer, Copics

Would you like to win the new No Peeking! stamp set? Here is what you need to do- visit the Trendsetter’s blogs that are participating in each of the blog hop challenges below and comment on their creations as you go. One of the Trendsetter’s blogs (from each hop day) will be randomly chosen as the ‘it’ blog and a winner will be picked using a random number generator from the comments left on that Trendsetter’s Blog Hop Challenge post. 

You will not know which blog has been chosen so the more you comment on the better your chances are of winning new stamps! The Blog Hop Challenges will be open until 5 PM Eastern Time Saturday October 29th with the winner being announced during the release party chat.

Paper Piercing at the 4 Crafty Chicks

Welcome back for another week of 4 Crafty Chicks fun.  I hope you had fun playing with Tamie's marker challenge last week - this week's hostess-with-the-mostest is Lori and she is challenging us all to do some paper piercing on our cards.  I LOVE to paper pierce - I'm sure you already know that!  It really adds a little bit of interest to an otherwise bland card.

For my card, I used last week's TCP Tuesday challenge - it was an inspiration challenge that I found to be a bit difficult:

Hmmm...rock and roll?  I finally decided to go with the colors in the graphic and I took a cue from the whole *music* idea when I chose my papers and stamps.  I loosely based my card on this sketch from Clean & Simple Stamping and paper-pieced Skating Sprinkle as well as the mittens hanging on the twine:

Stamps: I used two older Cat's Pajamas sets - one is called Polar Holiday but I have no idea what the other one is!  Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black  Paper: Christmas Home (Teresa Collins), Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White, Basic Black  Accessories: Snowflakes embossing folder, Nesties Labels Seventeen, Ticket Strip die (MFT), button, twine, Big Scallop Cut-Up die (TCP), paper piercer

I hope you will play along with us this week - we love it when you do!  See you soon!

{Day Two} of There She Goes Blog Hop Challenges

We have another fabulous set from Torico – she’s showing off her range of creativity. Whip us some delicious greetings with the new Bon Appetit set. From the succulent turkey to steamin’ hot pie create some mouthwatering table settings and pass down secret family recipes for generations to come. Compliments of Chef Torico! 

Bon Appétit is a 4x8 set that includes a total of 31 stamps and will sell for $18. 

When I first saw this set, I immediately remembered a BoBunny kit I bought AGES ago with full intentions of making it for my sister for Christmas.  It is called "Someone's in Kitchen" and it makes a recipe book using heavy chipboard binder pages and paper etc.  I knew it would be the perfect match for this set.  

I started out making the cover...nothing too detailed:

... and then did the next two pages together (but shhhhhh....that's all I've done so far...)

See that little guy in the bottom, left corner of the first page?  He's one of the images in the new Bon Appetit set!  Isn't he adorable?  The sentiment on the flag above him is new too!

And a little peek at the second page:

 Would you like to win the new Bon Appétit stamp set? Here is what you need to do- visit the Trendsetters' blogs that are participating in each of the blog hop challenges below and comment on their creations as you go. One of the Trendsetters' blogs (from each hop day) will be randomly chosen as the ‘it’ blog and a winner will be picked using a random number generator from the comments left on that Trendsetter’s Blog Hop Challenge post. 

You will not know which blog has been chosen so the more you comment on the better your chances are of winning new stamps! The Blog Hop Challenges will be open until 5 PM Eastern Time Saturday, October 29th with the winner being announced during the release party chat.

Time For Another There She Goes New Release Week!!!

Are you ready for another fun week of sneak peeks from the There She Goes Trendsetters?  I think you're going to love this month's releases - 4 sets and you will be able to find MANY ways to use them.  Today we are peeking two sets:

The seasons are changing and it’s time to add some rich colors and beautiful leaves to our paper crafting projects! Autumn mini set has a bunch of different leaves each with a fun pattern that you are going to love to use!

Autumn is a 3x4 set that includes a total of 13 stamps and will sell for $7.

Torico brings us the techno savvy stamp set that everyone needs. We are living in an information age on an information planet so why not surprise your Friendbots with some automated cuteness. Let’s make it the age of interfacing with all your B.F.F.s!

Friendbots is a 3x4 set that includes a total of 5 stamps and will sell for $7.

I wasn't able to get all of my images in time to have time to make a card for both sets but I did manage to get one done for the Autumn set.  I consider myself to be technically savvy but, I will admit, using digi images isn't really my cup of tea.  I realized too late that my color ink cartridges are low so I could only print in black so my *brain plan* for a lovely fall card with fall colors using all of the different leaves as a background was not meant to be.  Onto Plan B - I used one of the leaf images for the stem from this set as well as the sentiment:

Would you like to win the new Autumn / Friendbots mini stamp sets? Here is what you need to do- visit the Trendsetters' blogs that are participating in each of the blog hop challenges below and comment on their creations as you go. One of the Trendsetters' blogs (from each hop day) will be randomly chosen as the ‘it’ blog and a winner will be picked using a random number generator from the comments left on that Trendsetter’s Blog Hop Challenge post. You will not know which blog has been chosen so the more you comment on the better your chances are of winning new stamps! The Blog Hop Challenges will be open until 5 PM Eastern Time on Saturday, October 29th with the winner being announced during the release party chat.

Pretend Like You Are in Kindergarten Again...

 ... and pull out those markers for this week's challenge at the 4 Crafty Chicks!  Tamie is our hostess-with-the-mostest and she wants to see your colored images featured on your cards.  Feel free to use whatever you have on hand - Copics, watercolor pencils... whatever you use to color your images.  :)

For my card, I used last week's TCP Tuesday sketch (courtesy of Leigh) and cracked open one of my new paper pads, "Holly Jolly Christmas" by Echo Park and combined "Birthday Bunny" and one of the sentiments from a TCP Christmas set I got on sale (and can't find the name anywhere...if you know it, let me know!):

 

I hope you will play along with us this week - coloring always relaxes me so if you need some "down time", stamp an image, color it up and join us!

Good Monday Morning!!  Did you have a fabulous weekend?  We spent the entire weekend at home doing house "stuff" - I washed windows (inside AND out), unpacked a few more boxes, watched some football ('Riders...sigh...) and hockey (WTG RNH!) and even managed to fit a few loads of laundry in there too.  Ah, but all good things must come to an end, right?

This week's challenge over at There She Goes is brought to us by our Senior Trendsetters. The week before release week there will be a TSG (Again!) week where we will be featuring cards/projects/tip sheets/etc. on the TSG Blog that use our fabulous older TSG stamp sets. This week the challenge is to create a card or project that features only a "partial image" where you only use part of an image as the focal point instead of the entire image. To be eligible for the giveaway, you are to create a card using a "partial image", and then come back to the TSG Blog to add your name and a link to your project in the InLinkz that is located at the bottom of this challenge post. This challenge is open until the winner has been announced on the following Monday (October 24th). The winner will get a $5 gift certificate to use in the TSG Web store!

By participating in this challenge, you may also find yourself in the Trendsetting Spotlight that shines on the TSG Blog every Thursday. We will be on the look out to find challenge cards that stand out and show Trendsetting qualities. TSG stamps are not required to participate in the challenges but are appreciated :)

You do not need to have a blog to be able to participate in the TSG Challenges! You can simply add the URL link from your project after it has been uploaded to your online craft gallery. If you upload your card to an online craft gallery, please use the keyword TSG126 so we can check out your beautiful work!

Now, I don`t have any of the older TSG sets that the rest of the gals are spotlighting but I *did* use an older TSG set, "Flowers of Happiness" and combined the CR84FN Color Challenge with this week's Mojo Monday sketch:

Thanks for stopping by today - what have you got planned for this week?  My week's not too packed but I'm sure that will change before I know it.  :)  Enjoy your day!

Thursday Morning With the Play Date Cafe and Viva la Verve

Welcome back everyone!  Even though I *should* be cleaning house and doing some Christmas baking to throw in the freezer, I *had* to sit down and make a card this morning.  It has been a LONG time since I have had time to play along with the Play Date Cafe and this week's color combo is GORGEOUS so that gave me a good place to start:

I decided to use Cajun Craze, Island Indigo and Basic Gray for my colors and, lucky for me, I found an older Basic Grey paper pad, Pyrus, that worked PERFECTLY with these colors!  I used the Week Two Viva la Verve sketch by Teresa Kline (lovely, BTW) and, surprisingly, followed it VERY literally...nothing out-of-the-box for me this morning.  The sentiment is one that I love and constantly remind myself of... Life. Is. Good.  :)

Stamps: Hope Blooms (Verve)  Ink: Basic Gray, Cajun Craze, Island Indigo marker  Paper: Pyrus DSP (BG), Island Indigo, Basic Gray, Cajun Craze, Very Vanilla  Accessories: Sewing machine, Nesties, Tipsy Hearts die (Sizzix), Basic Gray satin ribbon, button, Divine Swirls EF, sponge dauber, twine

Thanks for taking time to stop by - the weather here is beautiful today...the quintessential fall day.  Enjoy your day wherever you are!

It's a Color Challenge at the 4 Crafty Chicks!

And can you guess who the hostess-with-the-mostest is??  It's me!!!  Are you surprised?  Not likely, if you are a regular visitor to my blog.  Color challenges are my FAVORITE kind of challenge to do and this week, I'm sharing my love with you all at the 4 Crafty Chicks!

I picked one of my newest paper pads, "Madeline" by Prima, and chose this color palette based on these papers:

I used Julee's fantastic Mojo Monday sketch from a couple of weeks ago and also tried to incorporate the TCP Tuesday #179 from a few weeks ago, "Hype the Type"... I'm not sure if it *really* qualifies but I'm going with it... ;)

Stamps: Nesting (TCP)  Ink: Early Espresso  Paper: Madeline DSP (Prima), Early Espresso, Baja Breeze, Rose Red  Accessories: Paper piercer, Rose Red seam binding, Home Tweet Home Cut-Up (TCP), twine, chipboard cloud, sponge dauber

I hope you will play along with us this week - these colors could be used for so many different kinds of cards - are you thinking about Christmas yet??  It's only a couple of months away....how did that happen?  :)  Enjoy your week everyone!